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I do 99% of my edging with a line trimmer so I rarely even use my edgers.
But I change the mower blades/sharpen daily if not twice daily during the summer.

Thats a lot of sharpening dude! What are you using to sharpen your mower blades in the middle of the day out in the field? I personally have 2 sets of mower blades that get swapped out weekly. I send one set to the the tool sharpener on Monday and pickup/dropoff on Friday. Now im wondering if im not giving my customers, at the end of the week, a good clean cut.

How often do you have to buy a new set of blades? At that rate you can run through a set of blades very quickly.

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We change mower blades once per week and we only have enough customers fill about 20 to 25 hours per week. If we were at full capacity, I could see at least 2 changes per week. Edger blades are about the same.

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I just made a jig to hold the blade and I sharpen them with a side grinder. Nothing fancy. I have 6 sets of blade (I get a quantity discount). With that many, I only have to sharpen once a month or so. When I remove a set, I number them so that they always stay together. We change them every week. We might could go longer, but the dull blades start to show in cut quality.

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I have 5 sets of blades, and put a fresh set on each day, this was suggeseted to me by a friend, and it works well for me. i only have 33 accts at this time but i always give a nice clean cut. I have only been doing this since the start of the season and it makes for a great cut and the blades get sharpened weekly, $3 per set . still using the same 5 sets started season with.

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How do you change your blades. Do you have a hoist or do you take the deck off every time? I have always tried to keep the blades sharp on the pushers. I have a dremel to sharpen the blade on the machine while its still on the machine. Know what i mean?

Mike

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As far as edging with a trimmer:
I already have the trimmer in my hand & running for one, two I am faster with it than an edger & my lines look just as clean & even at that I find the edger makes a little thin line that grows over in 2 days this time of year, but the trimmer creates about a 1/2" line.... looks good all week.

As far as the blades:
I run 2 mowers (3 man crews) serving 25-30 properties a day. Some lawns are nice st. Augustine, Some are a mix of bahai, weeds, & sand (very hard on blades). But they are all wet pretty much all day long every day down here so the start cutting poorly. As soon as they stop cutting well, we swap them on the spot at the back of the trailer where ever we happen to be. I have probably 6 sets for my older machine (had it a little over a year) & 3 sets for my new one (about 2 months old). In doing this I find that it makes for a better cut in less passes (easier on the wet lawns down here, multiple passes rut them up pretty bad) saves fuel & labor too. Also because I don't let the blades get so bad that they're essentially flat... they sharpen easily as I don't have to take much off to get a nice edge back. I sharpen them with an angle grinder, no vice.... just hold in one hand & grind with the other!
Yes it's on my trailer, & yes I have had blades get bent before & had to sharpen a dull blade once or twice outside a customers house to keep going for the day.

Hard to say how long they last as I use multiple sets & replace as needed but I bet I get a new set for each machine about once a month during this time of year so if I have 3 sets... I guess they last 3 months? New in & the oldest out....

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My tractor, I have to sharpen them every week. Otherwise I don't get as a nice cut since most of these lawns are rough and have sticks and stones that I don't see. I have another spare set of blades so one of them is always ready to get changed

So my dad is an electrician and I found and old 3 inch counduit pipe in the shed. Used that and put a chain around that and put that across the beams in the shed and put a chain block on there and raise/lower the mower and take off the blades on that

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I agree with Chuck on the edging, never used an edger in my life, don't see the point. If someone's edge is overgrown, I do it with a half moon hand edging tool and charge them, then I just maintain edges with the string trimmer, does a great job in no time at all.

I have never seen anyone use an edger to maintain an edge here, only when they're cutting an overgrown edge.